Saint Patrick's Day
by balfies
Summary: Everyone is at uni now, but Clyde suggests a meet-up back home at Ealing for the illusive Irish celebration for no apparent reason. This is cause for a oneshot. Rani/Clyde implied, but I hope they'll get together by this stage. R&R!


_So I wanted to write a Saint Patrick's Day oneshot and this is what I spewed out. Not exactly filled with Top of the Mornings, leprechauns, shamrocks and general Irish tomfoolery, but it'll do. R&R._

*O*O*O*O*O*O*O*

It was Saint Patrick's Day, and Clyde, never one to miss a holiday, had suggested a meet-up in the Ealing Pub to Rani and Clyde.

It seemed like he hadn't seen them in ages. It had been a long time since they'd all been in Ealing together. The last time… when Luke had come down to see the graduation ceremony of Clyde and Rani. Was it that long ago that they'd all been at Bannerman Road?

Time had flown since then. Clyde only saw his friends every month or so now. He'd thought that the University for Creative Arts would mean he'd have time for a social life. But old habits die hard, and he was very bad at doing assignments on time without Rani there to push him in the right direction. Most of his time was spent drawing or painting his latest work at the last minute. Clyde didn't mind, though. Painting assignments was far better than writing them. His professor had said that he showed great potential and imagination but was very scantily motivated. Hmm. He'd need to work on that. But why give up the title of King of Procrastination now?

Clyde parked his little red car next to Luke's yellow one. His other two friends had driven down together. Clyde felt a bit out of it – Luke and Rani were just across the road from each other at Oxford and he was 80km away. He wondered if the dynamics of their friendship had changed. Then he laughed at his own stupidity. He'd talked to Luke on Skype the weekend before, and he spoke to Rani every night on Facebook. Everything was fine.

Clyde pushed open the creaky pub door and the colour green blinded him. The pub had decided to go full hog for Saint Patrick's Day, then.

He spotted Luke and Rani in the corner, laughing at something. Clyde pushed through the emerald crowd.

"Speak of the devil," said Luke as he saw him.

"How you doing, Lukey-boy?" asked Clyde, sliding into the spare seat.

"Alright," his best friend replied. "I have a thing on in a bit, so I might have to leave early."

"What kind of thing?" Clyde asked.

"He won't say," Rani said in a stage whisper.

"Hey, Rani."

"Hey Clyde."

"So, what do we want to eat?" Luke asked.

"Don't try to change the subject," Rani said in a pretend stern voice. "What is this mysterious 'thing' you're so adamant about keeping secret?"

"It's just a thing!"

"That is not an answer and you know it," said Rani. "Spit it out."

"Can we just –"

"Now!"

Luke sighed.

"I have a date later. Happy?"

Clyde and Rani looked at each other.

"Please don't make fun of me."

"We won't, Luke. Will we Clyde?" Rani said, pressing on Clyde's foot.

Clyde smirked, but nodded.

"Kay. I'll go get the first round then, shall I?" Rani said brightly.

Luke nodded, smiling at her. Clyde turned to his friend.

"Um, since when do we drink?" he asked.

"We don't. We're getting food. Rani just doesn't want the numerous Irish bandits in the pub to attack us with meat cleavers," Luke replied.

"Right."

There was a short silence.

"So, how's Oxford?"

Luke was very happy to talk about his work and uni. He'd got a part-time job for Torchwood London that he hadn't told Sarah Jane about. It was mainly IT stuff – Torchwood's mainframe system was 'out of date', and Luke had been putting together a new one for them. He did get to see a bit of alien action every now and then, though. A few weeks back, he'd been called in at the last minute to reassure a stranded Foamasi child.

Rani promptly returned with the 'drinks', which consisted of a bowl of wedges and water for the three of them. Happily, the bar's other inhabitants were too drunk to notice the lack of alcohol and shamrocks.

The next few hours flew by in a whirl of lazy ineptitude on the part of the author. Luke left for his 'thing' much to the amusement of Rani who trilled a childish "oo-oo-oo" at him. He poked his tongue out at her as he swung his jacket on and fell out the pub door.

"I bet it's Addie he's dating," said Rani. "Or Gillian. Or Lexie. Come to think of it, it could be any girl at Oxford given they're all completely mad for him."

"Seriously?" asked Clyde.

"Clyde, he's a highly intelligent, good-looking, brave, kind, sweet, funny knight in shining armour, and nerdy to boot," she said. "He's sort of the best thing that happened to the female population of Oxford, but he's so oblivious he doesn't notice at all. Kind of hilarious actually."

"Huh," said Clyde. "Wouldn't have picked Luke out to be a –"

"Don't use the phrase ladies' man, it sounds disgusting," Rani scolded him. "Like I said, he has no idea. He probably thinks they're all being really friendly or something. You saw what he was like when Maria last came to visit – he just didn't spot her outrageous flirting for what it was until four months later."

"Too late for them to get it going now what with her boyfriend and stuff I guess."

"Nah, cause I talked to her the other day and apparently they're not going so well. There's hope for Luke and Maria yet. Just need to get her up from Edinburgh."

"Is Maria at Edinburgh Uni? I thought it was Dublin."

"Yeah, well you never did listen in geography, did you?"

Clyde laughed, and took a sip of his drink. A drunken man stumbled past them wearing a green hat with a singing jiggling leprechaun on it that sang songs out of tune. The man's tipsy walking and stupid hat made Rani laugh so hard she nearly cried.

"So," he said. "How you going to get back to Oxford now Luke's left with the car that brought you here?"

Rani stopped laughing. Her face went blank.

"Well," she said pointedly. "That was stupid. Guess I'll catch the train. Or a bus. Or get you to drive me."

"You know, I _was_ planning on getting back to Epsom at some point tonight..."

Rani pouted at him.

"Fine," he sighed. "I'll drive you. But you have to buy me a Kit Kat at the petrol station as payment, yeah? And I get to blame you when I hand in another late essay." Damn Rani and her fluttery eyelashes.

Rani laughed and leant back in her seat, content with the arrangement.

"Thanks," she said, rolling her head towards him lazily.

"No problem," he smiled back at her.


End file.
